It has been a couple of days since Blogtacular and arghhhhh, the event has made me think about blogging from a whole new angle.

Now I apologise in advance to all you lovely non-blogging folk. I never really write about actual blogging. But I just have too. The whole weekend was like a light bulb moment to me. And to be honest a lot of what I learnt could be transferred to real life.

You see before Blogtacular I felt a bit odd. I was happy with my bubble, but I had lots of unanswered questions.

I have discussed not knowing what my niche is before, and honestly, I was fine with it. It’s when every piece of blogging advice says YOU MUST HAVE A NICHE!

Why must you? Why choose, travel, interiors, lifestyle, family or food. When I love it all why are you making me choose, stop it! What I didn’t realise was I am my niche.

OMG lightbulb moment no 1, I couldn’t stop smiling. I AM MY NICHE! Now I could have read this whole I am my niche thing wrong and if I did don’t tell me, just humour me. However I love it. Not that it changes how I work at all, but I now know being different is good.

Following on from that, know your people. This goes hand in hand with my niche. Who are my people, my readers? Another light bulb moment, I know who my readers are and what they like. Because they like all or some of the things that I like. They love life, adventure, family, their homes, afternoon teas, travel and gin and fizz. Am I right? Hope so!

Some of you lovely lot are adapting to your kids growing up just like me. With exams, independence, driving arghh, what also comes with that is independence for us, more me time. Time to shop, travel, eat out, spend more on ourselves and some of us get to go away in term time, wohoooo. Some are enjoying traveling the world with the kids, every day a new adventure.

Know your tribe, your favourite blogging people.

Surround yourself with these wonderful creatures, they are rare and have your back at all times. At this point we may have all nodded at each other knowingly. Creative people are totally my kind of people they inspire me. We all have our own tribe out there somewhere. They are rare because they are on our wavelength totally.

Forget trying to perfect, I am not an academic writer and never will be.

Speak from the heart and allow that passion into my writing. I am giddy let it show! How on earth am I going to endorse something I am not excited about? And I am so lucky that I have the support from the best bunch of ladies that will message me and say you missed a word, or that makes no sense, read it again! I love them for that.

On that note keep to my morals, I am right to say no to products that I don’t aspire to own, or indeed believe in. If I love a product or service I can of course shout it from the rooftops because it’s real. Its HONEST and my readers know that. If it aint good it aint getting into my little place or the Internet!

Keep it real and just be me. If I have a day when I choose the wrong outfit for an event no one is going to shoot me. Because I am unique, everyone is unique and we should embrace that, fashion fails and all.

And whilst we are keeping it real, there are lots of ways to amplify Instagram stats, think about it seriously, PRs can tell. Each to their own, I will judge no one, judging it’s not my bag at all. But I want to know that each follower is real.

If I have a couple of k followers less than the next person that’s fine, because those people are watching and listening, fewer people who are more engaged has to be better right? It’s not a competition. But like I say no judgments from this little corner of the web, there are far to many judgy people out there for my liking. Planet Sarah is a great place to be and that’s where I am staying.

Age is irrelevant, blogging encompasses beautiful, wonderfully creative people of all ages.

We all have an audience. It’s not about looking at someone to a different age and wanting what they have. Or feeling inadequate for being 40 odd! We have to remember our era were right there at the front of the queue with the internet and technology revolution. Our readers are loyal readers and not about to stop reading and exploring technology, its in our genes. I have checked, my readers are of all ages and I love that. Its about being a woman and a parent and all the other things I represent, not just my age.

Lastly, oh and this is my favourite part, creativity is key. For me anyway because I am a creative person by nature. It’s not about being perfect, creating what others are creating. More about creating what we love and not being scared to share that, being proud to be different. And video can be sooooooo easy which makes me love it more. But I must stop seeing the world as flat when videoing, be brave and creative. And in the quest to be braver I tried something new on Sunday morning. Hope you like it?

About SarahJChristie

A family lifestyle and travel blog talking about being a mum of teenage boys, our family travels, recipes, reviews and country living. But also how I adapt to life as our family grow up and I start to get a little me time back and the time to explore my person likes and loves such as interiors and fashion.

Comments

Yes!!! Exactly all of this, I don’t have a niche – I don’t want one, why be restricted to only covering a few subjects unless they’re your complete passion? I love how random what I am working on can be at times.

Great post. It’s so important to *just be you* when blogging. I think there is definitely too much pressure to fit in to the format that other people may have been successful at before, but if you’re going to be authentic – and hopefully as successful as possible – then you need to do it YOUR own way. And have fun at the same time 🙂

I totally agree Lucy and I had been really doubting that lately with all this you need a niche malarkey, and after years in education my way is most certainly the way forward, and thats the best thing about owning a blog getting to be just me x

Lovely post Sarah, and it’s something I came to realise a few years ago after never feeling like I fitted in anywhere. And then I realised that people read my blog because they’ve ‘bought into me’, insofar as they like me for who I am, and how I write, not necessary WHAT I write about. So that’s pretty freeing isn’t it? x

Oh Kate so freeing, I have always tried to work to my own beat but always felt I was wrong in what I was doing. But what on earth is the point of it all if its not from the heart and real you are so right and thank you x

What a great post Sarah, and Blogtacular sounded such a lovely event. I don’t class myself as creative, but I love how your creativity shines through on your blog and social media. Totally agree that you should always be true to yourself and keep it real. And nodding along to your list of what your readers like…. GIN and afternoon tea, travel, sun, surviving with teenage kids lol x